Round 1
Withheld from the archive
This round was played, but we do not republish it here. Recent events involving mass civilian casualties are excluded from our public archive under our content policy, whatever their place in the day’s puzzle.
Terra Tempus Daily #56 — July 26, 2026
These are the 5 rounds every player got on July 26, 2026, with the answers and the history behind them. This day is finished, so nothing here spoils a puzzle you can still play — today’s Daily Challenge is a different five events.
Not enough completed runs on this day to report an average without singling out an individual player’s score — we publish one from 5 finishers up.
Round 2
Battle of Alma
Battle of Alma · 1854 · 19th Century
Why there: The Alma River's bluffs stood on the direct route inland from the allied landing beaches toward Sevastopol, Russia's great Black Sea naval fortress in the Crimea, so the Russians dug in on the last natural high ground shielding that prize.
Why then: The 1850s decline of the Ottoman Empire drew Britain and France to check Russian expansion toward Constantinople and the Mediterranean, while steamships and railways for the first time let Western powers land and supply large armies on a distant Black Sea coast.
- This was the Battle of the Alma in September 1854, the first major engagement of the Crimean War.
- British and French forces drove Russian troops from the heights guarding the road to Sevastopol.
- Coordinates place it near the Alma River on the Crimean Peninsula.
Round 3
Battle of Avarayr
Battle of Avarayr · 451 · Antiquity
Why there: Armenia sat on the contested frontier between the Sasanian and Roman empires, and the rugged Vaspurakan highland plain of Avarayr gave the outnumbered Armenian nobility a defensible battlefield to resist Persian control of their kingdom.
Why then: By 451 Armenia had adopted Christianity as its identity generations earlier, so when the Sasanian shah Yazdegerd II tried to impose Zoroastrianism to bind the buffer province tighter to Persia, the clash of a now-Christian people against imperial fire-worship became inevitable.
- The Battle of Avarayr (451 CE) was fought between Christian Armenians under Vardan Mamikonian and the Sasanian Empire.
- The Sasanians sought to impose Zoroastrianism on Armenia.
- Though the Armenians lost the battle and Vardan died, later concessions preserved Armenian Christianity, and Vardan became a venerated saint.
Round 4
Withheld from the archive
This round was played, but we do not republish it here. Recent events involving mass civilian casualties are excluded from our public archive under our content policy, whatever their place in the day’s puzzle.
Round 5
Battle of Naseby
Battle of Naseby · 1645 · Early Modern
Why there: Naseby lay in the open Midlands of central England where the two armies converged as the Royalists, marching from their Oxford heartland, were intercepted on rolling terrain that suited the Parliamentarian cavalry's disciplined charges.
Why then: By 1645 Parliament had reorganized its forces into the New Model Army—a professional, salaried, centrally commanded force—whose superior discipline and funding finally tipped a years-long deadlock between crown and Parliament decisively.
- The reformed Parliamentarian army under its general and his cavalry commander decisively beat the king in 1645.
- It was a battle of the First English Civil War.
- Captured royal letters revealed attempts to bring in foreign and Catholic troops, damaging the king's cause.
Every Daily Challenge is five real events, one from each of five different eras, identical for every player, scored up to 10,000 points a round on how close you land in space and in time. Read how to play, see where the events come from, or play today’s.